Sidecar Sunday

Terrible thing to do to a Suzuki RG500!

Belsaw belt sander

Monte Burch.  Gun Care and Repair.  Winchester Press, 1978.

Nice little machine!

The Family Handyman, April 1985

The Belsaw company started in Kansas City, Missouri in the 1930's. In 1983, they merged with the Minneapolis, Minnesota-based Foley Manufacturing Company to become Foley-Belsaw.  The companies split apart some time later. Foley-United makes tool grinders. Belsaw today seems a shadow of its former self, but still makes molding pattern knives and supplies parts and manuals for the older machines.

Industrial Design, 1954

Cool cover for a trade magazine.

1957 Chevrolet 6400

1927 Miller race car

Images from Griffith Borgeson, The Golden Age of the American Racing Car, Bonanza Books 1966

In 1926, in an effort to slow cars down, the American Automobile Association spec'ed an engine size of 91 cu in (1.5 litre) capacity- down from 122. Miller refined his supercharged inline 8, installed it in both front and rear drive race cars and at Indianapolis in 1928, Leon Duray's car set a lap record of 124.02 mph that held for 9 years. A closed course record was set at the Packard test track of 148.2 mph and a speed of 164 mph was set at Lake Muroc, indicating an output of 285 hp at 8100 rpm. 
About fifty 91s were built before the rules changed again in 1929. 

 Cutaway drawing by Clarence LaTourette

 Transverse cross section

Leo Goossen was the designer and draftsman for Harry Miller. Here are his notes for cam timing.

Killingworth High Pit

The Manitoba Readers.  Fourth Reader.  Thomas Nelson & Sons.  Clark Bros. & Co., Ltd, Winnipeg, undated but c. 1898.

Situated in Newcastle, England, and long closed, this is where George Stephenson, the famous railway engineer, began his career.

Mystery Bracket

I've had this odd bracket kicking around for ages.  It's about 11-1/4" long, and the 4 holes are tapped 10-24.  A search for RW No 4 yields nothing.  The M-logo on it is interesting.  I'm thinking it might have come from a machine tool.

Fix Your Bike

A useful manual for maintaining and repairing bicycles, at least those manufactured up until the middle of the 1970's.  The person pictured on the cover is peculiarly androgynous. I can't find anything on the author, although the two people he mentions in his dedication were founders of the Rochester Bicycling Club.  I mailed the book off to my son to help him work on an old Raleigh Sprite a neighbour gave me.  I love the maxim: "Bikus Non Lubrium Bustibus."

J.H. Williams & Co wrench

An old but not uncommon tool, this 7/16- 3/8" open end wrench shows sculptural qualities you don't see in tools today.  The jaws appear to be intended for square head bolts.

A distant second...

George Abdill; This was Railroading, Bonanza Books 1958

The last spike ceremony of the Grand Trunk Western took place on April 7, 1914 at Milepost 1327.7. It appears to have been a pretty simple ceremony. The CPR had been completed to Vancouver in 1887 and although there was a lot of the country without railway service no transcontinental competitor had appeared till the GTW was chartered in 1903. Construction started in Winnipeg in 1906 and by 1912 had made its way to Edmonton. From there it continued into the Rockies through Fort George and on to Prince Rupert. The company struggled along till it was taken over by the Canadian government in 1920 and has operated since as the Canadian National.